An imidazopyran derivative of the following formula (9A) is useful as, for example, an intermediate of PA-824 having the following formula, which has antibacterial activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis and so on.

The process for preparing imidazopyran derivatives is known and shown by the following scheme 1 (see WO 97/01562).
According to this process, the compound (B) obtained starting from glycidol and t-butyldimethylsilyl ether is reacted with 2,4-dinitroimidazole, and after protecting the hydroxy group of the resulted siloxy alcohol (C) with dihydropyran, the tetrahydropyranyl (THP) ether compound (D) is subjected to desilylation and cyclization to form imidazopyran skeleton (E) and then, the imidazopyran derivative (F) is obtained by removal of THP group.
